Meet the Makers: Pedram Karimi

Label: pedram karimi

Designer Name(s): Pedram Karimi

Hometown: Tehran, Iran

Zodiac sign: Gemini

Year you created your label: 2012

Describe your label in three words

Forever changing, gender-free, playful

What made you first want to be a designer?

A program to study fashion design & marketing somehow just fell in my lap after finishing a Vidal Sassoon course in London. At the time I wanted to extend my student visa, primarily for love.

When you decided to become designer, what is one thing you had no idea you’d have to do?

I didn’t know that I would have to be my own motivational friend and partner. I didn’t know once the creative, early design stages are over, I’d have to switch my position and take on the a role of an operations manager, which basically means you have to take on the assistant’s job and work around your team.

If you could have anyone in the world wear your collection, who would it be?

My mother. She has an androgynous, practical and unfussy style.

What is one place or location that inspires you?

I can be inspired at any place & time, but lately I’ve been inspired by trees and their calm presence.

What would you consider the highlight of your career so far?

The highlight of my career happened after my 10th runway show. I was confident with how the collection turned out and hoped to be carried in some relevant boutiques by being represented by one of Toronto’s most-respected agents. She decided my collection wasn’t be a good fit and that it belongs to the future or some niche underground scene in New York or Paris. Hearing compliments and mainly positive comments about the show, yet being told otherwise by a specialist with a few decades experience was challenging to digest. After a few days of feeling emotionally spent, I decided to accept the fact that my brand’s aesthetic and it’s sentimental humane philosophy would be quite tricky to fit in a package for targeted shoppers. I realized I have the option of submitting to the current market and create a safer, more sellable collection or keep my formula, stay patient and have faith in my vision. Deciding to believe in my product and refusing to modify it to be more successful was an inspiring, reassuring and transcendental moment in my life.

What are you most looking forward to about Toronto Fashion Week in collaboration with RE\SET?

I mostly look forward to sharing my sentimental message with all the adults and parental figures: don’t crush the caterpillars / youth aka the adults of our future.

Pedram Karimi is showing at 8:00pm on September 6th, 2018 at Yorkville Village (87 Avenue Road).

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